Day 10: Wednesday

The next morning, Nico woke up at 2am in the morning as the door to his cabin closed.

He shot up.

What?

He looked to his bedside table and noticed a package and note that hadn't been there before.

His admirer!

Even though he didn't really want to know (Ok, that was a lie, he wanted to know BADLY, but was still scared to find out) he jumped out of bed and raced over to the window.

But in the darkness he couldn't see a thing.

To think that if only he had woken five minutes sooner, he would have met him.

Solved the mystery.

The thought was both scary and thrilling.

He sighed and went back to the bed, turning on the lights on the way.

There was no way he'd go back to sleep without checking out the note and gift right away.

Not if he wanted any sleep at all.

He first took the note.

Somehow, he always first wanted to read of his admirer.

A shy smile crept on his face as he touched the creamy white paper gently, feeling it beneath his fingertips.

The ink looked quite fresh actually.

So the person must have written this shortly before leaving.

Nico smiled fondly and then began reading.

Somehow, for these notes, his dyslexia didn't bother him that much anymore.

He rather enjoyed it.

[Dear Nico,

I love your kind nature.

No matter if it's your friends or complete strangers, you'd always help anybody and everybody.

The way you looked so stunned at the kids that wanted to learn from you yesterday was both the cutest, yet also the saddest thing I've ever seen.

You, of all people, shouldn't have to be so surprised at being acknowledged for what you can do and who you are.

I hope you liked the candy.

There are so many different types I was worried I might not hit your taste.

I can't wait to see you today.

As it is, I can barely get myself to leave you each night.

I love you, Nico.

I love you so much.

Please be mine.

I hope you'll like today's gift.

It should be quite useful to you.

Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it quickly, I know you will.

You're amazing, after all.

Have a nice 10th day of December, Nico.

I love you,

Your secret Admirer

P.s.: Would you mind too much if you woke up one morning and found me lying next to you in bed?

Just joking, now I really AM creeping you out ;( ]

Nico chuckled.

Really?

By now, Nico seriously wouldn't mind.

He really wondered who it was, though.

It couldn't be any of his friends. But at the same time, everything else indicated that.

Like when he had talked about Nico's pouting face. Or this time, with the kids.

Nobody else Nico had actually known had been around, other than Will, Percy and Jason.

But could it actually be one of them?

Nico usually tried to not think about it.

Of course, he wasn't very successful at it, but he had always stopped himself from thinking about it too much.

Now he let his mind wander there willingly.

How would it be if one of his friends liked him?

Loved him?

Not as friend or family, but as lover and boyfriend?

He shook his head.

But they were straight!

Something shot through his head.

'Sexual preferences can change, you know'.

Percy had said that.

His heart missed a beat.

And for a splint second, he tried to picture Percy being his admirer.

Percy being the one who loved him.

He shook his head wildly.

That was impossible.

First of all, Percy was straight and he would NEVER turn gay for Nico.

Ever.

Second of all, Percy would never come up with something like this.

He wasn't the romantic type after all.

He also would never actually sit down and write notes for him.

Seriously, Percy hated writing as much as he hated reading.

And Nico had never met somebody who hated reading more than Percy.

Nico sighed.

Also, Percy wouldn't have to do something like this.

He had to have noticed Nico was still awkward around him.

He had to have realized by now Nico wasn't really over him.

All he would have had to do is walk up to Nico and ask him out and Nico would have...well, he would have dropped dead on the spot, really, right after trying to slaughter Percy for making fun of his feelings and trying to save his dignity.

But afterwards he would have actually dated him.

He looked over to the package.

It was a rather big package, but more as in long and square, not very high.

He thought of Jason.

He was also straight.

Jason was considerate of everybody and anybody, a really amazing person.

His gentle and caring nature always calmed Nico.

What would it be like if Jason was his admirer?

He felt his insides tingling and chuckled.

Yeah, sure.

Jason wouldn't do something like that.

His thoughts travelled to Will.

Instantly, their kiss came back to mind.

He blushed and grabbed the package.

There was no way Will was gay for him.

He was simply a very open person.

Also, he didn't seem like the type of person to actually go through so much trouble for somebody he barely knew.

Even if they had gotten to know each other the past months, they were still working on finding out more about each other.

Will wouldn't sit at his bedside writing love notes to him.

Just the thought was laughable.

Which kind of depressed him.

Now he was back at step 1.

Who could his admirer be?

The package felt heavier than any of the ones before.

He frowned and began unwrapping the pretty, red wrapping.

It was a laptop.

Not a big one, mind you, but a small one.

Nico had never actually held one of these so he was fairly surprised at how it felt.

He put it on his lap and noticed there was something black attached to it, like a battery, exactly where the charger should be.

That looked a lot as if Leo had tempered with this.

He hesitated, glancing at his wrist where his IM-ing-device was.

He wouldn't be surprised if Leo had helped with that as well.

He still wanted to try that out with Reyna and his sister, but he knew they were busy this week, so he hadn't had a chance so far.

Maybe next week though.

He really wanted to see them again.

Frank as well.

He liked Frank.

He was glad his sister had found such a good guy.

Plus, he knew how to play Mythomagic.

Not that he played that game anymore.

He tentatively pressed the power button of his new laptop, wondering if he should really do this without his friends around.

Then again, he rather embarrassed himself by himself than in front of all his friends.

The little machine began buzzing quietly and the screen began flashing different digits and screens and ultimately came up with a start screen.

He stared at it.

Then he looked back at the package and pulled out a small wireless mouse.

Eh...?

He looked around at the laptop and noticed there was something small plugged in at the side.

He turned the mouse around and found a switch.

As soon as he flipped it, the cursor on the desktop moved around.

That admirer of his must have made sure everything was completely set up for Nico.

He smiled weakly.

That guy...whoever he was...he was really great...

And then Nico spent the next hours until sunrise with clicking around on his desktop, finding the folder with pictures they had made on Leo's laptop and looking through the pictures again.

He managed to connect his camera to the laptop, looking through the thousands of pictures they had taken.

He deleted a few that had fingers on the lens or were too shaky to recognize anything, but couldn't make himself delete any of the others, even though a lot of them seemed almost identical.

He moved them all into his new photos folder, even managing to create sub-folders and sorting them by their date.

By the time it was 7:30am in the morning, he was feeling pretty pro at dealing with his laptop.

He managed to open and close things without any problems, even opened the internet at some point but closed it soon afterwards because he had no idea what he'd do there anyways.

Then he had looked through what else was on there and found a few games that he tried out.

It was actually quite fun.

Then it knocked on the door.

He yawned loudly.

Oops.

So much about going to bed right after he'd get done unwrapping his gift.

Jumping up, he walked over to the door and found Jason standing in front of him.

"Morning, Nico. Wait, I'm the first one here?"

Nico chuckled. "Looks like it. Look what I got.", he said and let him in, showing him over to the bed.

"Hey, sweet, a laptop. Your admirer really goes all out, huh?"

Nico grinned and passed him the note while closing some folders and games he had opened before going back to his now sorted pictures.

Jason read the note quietly.

"I wonder what would happen if you wrote him a note in the evening saying 'Yes, please lay down next to me'. You think he'd do it?"

Nico chuckled at the thought and took the note from him, gently putting it to the others.

"Who knows. He'd probably reply something like 'I would love you but I can't...', because he promised he'd go through with this. Though I did almost see him today."

"You did?"

"Yeah, I woke up when he closed the door. But by the time I understood what was going on and was at the door he was already gone."

Jason chuckled. "And when was that?"

"At roughly 2am in the morning."

"Really? That's pretty early. I hope you got some sleep afterwards."

Nico fidgeted. "Actually...", he muttered and Jason's eyes widened.

"Don't tell me you've been up all this time, Nico."

Nico put on an innocent face. "I have no clue what you're talking about...", he canted and Jason looked at him sternly.

With those glasses he sure did look adorable.

Nico found himself adjusting them again.

Jason blinked but let him. "You always do that...", he muttered.

Nico smiled tentatively, pulling his hand back.

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's some sort of reflex, I suppose."
"Oh, it's ok. I like it."

They grinned at each other.

Then Nico showed him the pictures he sorted.

Jason laughed.

"You stayed up all night to sort your photos?"

Nico blushed slightly but nodded.

Jason inched closer, putting his arm around Nico to put his hand on Nico's hand on the mouse and move it together.

They clicked through some pictures, Jason helping him decide on deleting some that were simply identical to others.

Then they made another print-folder on the desktop for anything they might want to print out later.

"How's your photo album coming along, by the way?", Jason asked and Nico got out of his grip and climbed over him to get to the end of the bed, not being bothered to get up.

He leaned over the end of it, stretching himself to get to his photo album on the low wooden cupboard next to it.

When he turned around, Jason's gaze hushed to his face, his expression guilty, making Nico wonder where exactly Jason had looked.

There was a tinge of red on his cheeks, but Nico shrugged it off and came back, climbing over Jason again.

"Here.", he said, passing it to him.

He opened it, looking at a group picture of all of them, then the shots they had decided on with Nico and one of them each.

Then other pictures followed.

Jason turned the pages slowly and Nico noticed he actually read what Nico had written over and next to the pictures.

It had just been simple stuff like 'My best friends and me'

'Percy and me'

'Jason and me'

'Will and me'

'My favorite dorks' (A picture of Jason, Percy and Will alone, making stupid faces at the camera)

and 'My home'

He saw Jason hesitating, staring at the title and the pictures of Camp Half-Blood they had printed out.

Then he looked around at Nico and smiled.

Nico shrugged. "Well, it IS my home now, you know..."

Jason hugged him. "I'm glad.", he muttered, holding him tightly.

Nico chuckled and hugged him back.

When the others came over, they were quite surprised to find Nico sitting on Jason's lap, both chuckling as they looked through pictures and found out how to open them in Paint, happily adding beards and weird forms to people or making it look as if Jason, Percy and Nico stared at a butterfly passing by as they had all looked into the same direction.

They joined in the fun right after, even saving some of their works, though they all looked horrible.

It was quite a fun way to start the day.

Later, they went over to Leo to get some more pictures printed.

There, they found him making out with Calypso, which ultimately resulted in Leo giving Nico a whole printer to himself with a pack of papers that they then had to carry through the entire camp back to his cabin.

Though it wasn't bad at all, especially since Nico now had his very own printer.

They printed out tons of pictures, each of them wanting some for themselves as well, all of them admiring Nico's photo album.

While Will had only looked up at Nico surprised at the 'My home'-page, Percy had reacted similar to Jason.
He had pushed the photo album towards Jason and jumped at Nico, wrapping his arms around him tightly while flopping back with him onto the bed, pressing their bodies together and not willing to let go.

Nico had loved it.

Though he had tried the whole time to get him off him, laughing and complaining.

When Percy had indeed pulled back, Nico had found himself tugging at him slightly, not really wanting him to let go.

He wasn't sure whether Percy had noticed.

He had looked at him oddly for a second, but then Will had shoved him aside and claimed that if everybody got to hug Nico, he'd have to do it too.

Thus, he had let himself drop straight onto Nico, pushing himself between his legs and clinging onto him, flattening Nico and pressing their bodies tightly together.

Nico had desperately tried to get away, but then Will had begun to tickle him and Nico had found his legs wrapped around Will, grabbing hold of him like that and turning them, until, all of a sudden, to everybody's surprise (including his own), he had been on top of Will.

Then Jason and Percy had laughed loudly at Will's surprised face and then even harder as Nico then started to tickle Will.

It had been pretty funny indeed.

Tickling was much more fun than being tickled, to say the least.

And it felt good to actually prove a point.

Will had stayed beneath him, looking up at him with that gleam in his eyes, making Nico all tingly inside.

Then Percy had suddenly grabbed him around the waist and pulled him off, pulling him over to the Snow Globe instead and asking what place it resembled.

While Will loudly complained about liking Nico on top (which had made Nico blush furiously), Nico had only chuckled awkwardly and told Percy about how his admirer had given him the Snow Globe with Venice on the day he had spent with Will.

"How did you take it, though? I mean, doesn't that bring back bad memories?"

Nico hesitated. "It does, partly. But I mean, you can't always just think of the good stuff. Thus, you can't always just think of the bad stuff, either. It still hurts to think of my mother and Bianca, but at the same time, when I look at this globe, I think of the time we've had together and all the good moments we shared. And that's all that matters, doesn't it?"

Percy had only smiled at him then.

There had been something in his eyes, guilt maybe, and Nico knew Percy still blamed himself for Bianca's death.

Nico had as well, after all.

But he knew it hadn't been Percy's fault.

Bianca had decided to go into the autonom.

He knew best how hardheaded she could get.

She would have never let anybody change her mind.

He had wanted to tell Percy that.

Tell him he really didn't blame him anymore.

But Percy had only smiled at him and patted his shoulder before he could say anything and walked back to the others.

The rest of the day, they went back to training the kids that hung around in the arena.

This time, Percy and Jason had done most of the fighting and showing them stances and whatnot while Nico went through the arena, checking that the kids did everything right.

They weren't really scared of him.

All in all, if anything, they seemed curious.

Maybe it was simply because he was wearing his ponytail again and a Camp Half-Blood sweater instead of his usual all black clothing style.

Or maybe everybody had forgotten he was child of Hades.

"You're a child of Hades, right?", a boy, maybe roughly 11 years old, asked him meekly.

He blinked. Then he smirked. "Yep. You're from the Ares cabin, aren't you?"

He only knew by chance, really.

The boy made a face and looked down. "Yeah...but sometimes I wonder if they might not be wrong."

Nico tilted his head and crouched down. "How come? Don't you like being a child of Ares?"

The boy shook his head. "I'm not really into war. I find it stupid."

Nico chuckled. "What's your name?"

"Bill."

"Well, Bill. Just because your father is the god of war, doesn't mean you have to like war yourself. I know somebody, he's the son of Mars. He doesn't like war much himself either, and he's one of the best fighters I've yet met. Because he doesn't fight for the joy of it. But because he has people he wants to protect."

Bill looked at him wide eyed. "Really? He doesn't enjoy killing people and all?"

Nico shook his head. "He is one of the gentlest people I have ever met. Couldn't hurt a fly. But if there's something threatening his friends or anybody who needs his help, he would be the first to protect them with everything he got."

The boy seemed to think for a moment.

"You know...you don't really seem like a child of Hades...you're so nice...", he then muttered, though he didn't meet Nico's eyes, his gaze still cast downwards.

Nico chuckled. "That's because I'm my own person, Bill. You don't have to be what others expect you to be. Be yourself, and be proud of it."

Bill grinned up at him broadly.

Nico smiled back and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Now get back to training, yeah? If I were you, I'd try out spear-fighting. I have a hunch you'd be pretty talented at it.", he then said and stood back up.

The boy looked around hastily and hurried off to get himself a spear.

Nico chuckled and noticed Percy standing behind him, Riptide lazily leaning against his shoulder.

He smiled at him fondly.

"What?", Nico asked, putting his neutral expression back on.

Percy only shook his head. "You're really something, Nico. You never stop to amaze me.", he muttered and grinned like an idiot.

Nico blinked and felt his ears turning red, but Percy only kept shaking his head and turned away again, correcting stances and showing kids how to do a wide-arced slash properly without falling over.

Nico watched him for a while, then looked over to Will and Jason, who explained something about the different types of weapons to them.

The kids were bound to know that already, but they still seemed fairly interested in whatever those two had to say.

Nico smiled and then went to check out the stances again, glancing at Bill out of the corner of his eye with a spear in his hand, getting a first feel of the new weapon.

And he thought of his admirer again.

A low sigh escaped his lips.

He really wanted to know who it was.

It had only been ten days, yet he found himself practically dying to find out just who that mysterious person was.

Maybe he also just wanted to really know it was all true.
Of course, he knew nobody would make a game like this, especially none of his friends.

But it just seemed so unreal.

Somebody loving him so deeply without him ever noticing.

He only hoped he could love the person back like that as well.

Because that person was really worth it.